I have a 96 Sedan Deville (103000mi), and I am thinking of replacing the starter that (I think?) went bad on me. I know enough about car repair that I don't mind tackling the job myself. I know that this has been posted at other places that it is easy to remove but never saw what the easiest route is.

My take is that I remove the spark plug wires (mark them of course), remove bolts and connectors, hoses and such from the intake (plenum), but I'm not sure if the fuel line has to be disconnected or not for the fuel rail or leave those on or how. Also as it looks to me the throttle body comes with it, just unhook the throttle cables and the airfilter box. After that I have no idea since I can't see below the intake.

Any suggestions would be really helpful since I'm basically stuck in my driveway.

Part 2, the reason I think it is the starter is that I just recently replaced the battery, so that looks good. I turn the key in an attempt to start the car and all I hear is a click from the relay but no attempt from the starter to kick in. I'm not sure how to test the relay it self. I am also positive that it is not the Neutral Safety switch since I cannot hear that same click from that relay. Do you think it is the starter then?

zonie77

10-22-03, 06:18 PM

Yes you have to disconnect the fuel lines. The cheap plastic kit works kinda. It was a pain on the feed line. I think a thicker tool would move the tabs out more. It is a universal kit.
Once you have the intake off the starter is right there.

rolajos

10-22-03, 06:30 PM

Is this kit something I can get fairly cheap at autozone or napa? or I can just use a plier and screwdriver?

zonie77

10-22-03, 08:57 PM

We tried with screwdrivers and didn't have much luck. There are 4 tabs that hold the lines together. We couldn't get all 4 spread back with screwdrivers. Ford uses a different arrangement.
The kit was a universal from Checker (Shucks & Kragen). I have seen many kits and they are usually universal. The release tool was a little skinny and didn't push all 4 tabs back quite far enough. We had to twist it and wedge scaps of plastic behind it to get it to release.
If you have a choice get the one that looks the thickest where it slides down the line.

rolajos

10-23-03, 02:27 AM

Ok the job is done after 3 hours of tinkering around, took my time, did not want to mess up. I went to Napa to pick up the starter also the guy at the store gave me a little plastic round thingy that worked great to remove the fuel line.

The job was easy just had to make sure all the lines are disconnected before you start pulling the intake out. As I found out there was a coolant line that ran beneath the throttle body that gave me the suprise, for some reason it passes on the bottom side of it, not sure why, so that was the only hick up. Besides this suprise everything else went smoothly and everything went back the way it came out.

Also I took the time to clean the throttle body so it wouldn't stick anymore, so I will see later how that works out.

Thanks zonie77 for mentioning the little fuel line tool, if it wasn't for you I would have had to go to the store twice :p, or I would have been screwing around with it still.

Thanks

PS.: I will right a step by step procedure later, in case anyone else has to do this, although specific to my car, but I'm sure it can be adopted or edited by others for other models.